


Failure Is Not An Option

by Flameo_Hotman



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Dadko 2020, Hurt/Comfort, Katara Toph and Azula are the dangerous aunites squad, M/M, Mai and Ty Lee are existed to be moms, Sokka loves his idiot husband, Sokka thinks that Zuko is worried over nothing, Surrogate mother, The Kyoshi Warriors baby proofed the palace, Zuko is worried about being a good dad, lesbians and gays unit for a child
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-04-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:35:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23936197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flameo_Hotman/pseuds/Flameo_Hotman
Summary: Beta read by H_Faith_Marr and 1Zukoneedafamily2Zuko's advisors are demanding that Zuko produce an heir. Zuko is less than thrilled about this as excuse me but I have a husband thank you very much. Sokka just wants Zuko to be happy and Zuko is constantly doubting himself. Mai and Ty Lee want to be moms and well Sokka gets a brilliant idea that will give everyone what they want.
Relationships: Mai/Ty Lee (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 23
Kudos: 550





	Failure Is Not An Option

Zuko sat with Sokka in their private chambers, quiet and sullen, while his husband ran his fingers through his long hair. They were quiet and the mood was tense.

Zuko was holding back, and for the life of him, Sokka couldn’t tell you why.

Normally he was good at figuring out what Zuko’s quiet moments said. He could tell you what was hidden behind angry words shouted in false rage. He could read Zuko like a well-worn book.

Zuko had come back from a meeting with his advisors and sank down next to Sokka on their couch, where Sokka had been reading.

Sokka had seen the unhappiness in Zuko’s steps, and while he couldn’t read what had caused such a somber mood, he knew how to treat it. So he’d sat with his husband in deafening silence, and removed Zuko’s hair from it’s top knot and ran his fingers through it.

An hour later, Zuko had finally relaxed, limbs losing their stiffness, and melted into the warrior’s side.

“They want me to produce an heir.”

Sokka went still.

Suddenly Zuko’s mood made sense and Sokka understood.

As Fire Lord, Zuko had a duty to produce an heir. Iroh was too old and Azula too unstable. Neither could ascend to the throne when Zuko’s reign came to an end. Sokka certainly couldn’t take the throne, as he wasn’t even Fire Nation.

If Zuko were to die today, yes, Iroh would take the throne, but then who would follow Iroh?

Zuko had a duty to his people to produce an heir.

He hadn’t told Sokka to ask for permission because even Zuko himself didn’t have a choice.

“How long have they given you?” Sokka asked, his voice going tight despite his best efforts to keep it calm.

Zuko sighed and pressed himself even further into Sokka’s side.

“I have a month to find someone to mother my child… If I don’t then my advisors will choose someone for me.”

A month.

“Sokka, I don’t know what to do. I asked them why I couldn’t just name someone as my heir, but they said my heir must be from my own bloodline, and they refuse to consider any children Azula might have.”

Sokka didn’t blame them for not wanting someone like Azula on the throne.

“Okay, then let’s try and find someone. I mean you are extremely attractive,” Sokka stated as he pulled Zuko into his lap and kissed him. “I would be more than happy to put a baby in you if I could.”

Zuko flushed bright red and tried to hide his face in Sokka’s neck, but the water tribesman didn’t let him. Not when he loved seeing how his words could bring out such beautiful responses from the man he loved.

“But it wouldn’t hurt for me to try anyways, darling.”

One defiled couch later, Zuko was curled against Sokka, lazy and pliant in the afterglow, but then that same sombreness returned to his face and he finally said what it was that was worrying him most of all.

“What if I don’t make a good father… What if I turn out just like my dad?”

Sokka felt his heart shatter and rage wheel up within him. Ozai had been cruel to Zuko, and here Zuko was fearing that he would become just like the man. His sweet kind grouchy Zuko, who sat there and let Sokka’s niece Kya braid his hair and listened as his nephew Bumi had chattered aimlessly about his new pet meadow vole he had named Senzu.

Zuko, who had carried his nephew Tenzin from meeting to meeting, so Katara and Aang could take a much needed nap.

Zuko, who was the furthest thing from his father in the world.

“Babe, I have seen you with kids. My niece and nephews love you more than they love me. You’re going to be the best dad ever. You learned how from your uncle.”

Zuko was quiet for a moment before he looked up into Sokka’s eyes and asked, “You really think that?”

“Babe, I don’t just think it. I know it.”

A week later they still had no idea who would be the mother of their child. So far all of the women they had interviewed wanted to have Zuko’s kid to either become his wife, despite the fact he was already married, or use this as a chance to grab at the power they thought would come with having his child.

It probably hadn’t helped that they were interviewing women off of the list the Zuko’s advisors had given him.

After that first week was over they were invited to Mai and Ty Lee’s house for dinner. They had been doing weekly dinners every Friday with the girls every week for the past three years. How it had started was unclear, but it had become a tradition and this week it was the girl’s turn to host it.

Zuko had come to treasure these dinners because it was a reminder that he had friends. Friends who cared about him and wanted to know how his day went. He hadn’t known what it truly meant to have friends until he had joined Aang.

He hadn’t actually had a friend until that point.

Mai still lived across the street from the palace, which had made the tradition easier to maintain, when they weren’t away on business.

The royal palanquin carriers still tried and failed to hassle Zuko and Sokka into riding the short walk. But Zuko had decided upon becoming Fire Lord that only wasted valuable time with friends and Sokka just flat out didn’t see the point in it.

Mai was the one to answer the door, and she gave the pair a smile, before shouting into the house blandly, “Babe! The boys are here!”

Ty Lee had been good for Mai. Since the two had become official, Mai had become more comfortable showing her emotions when with friends. She had even smiled lightly through her whole wedding.

Zuko didn’t think he could have ever done that for her.

Ty Lee rushed out into the hall and threw her arms around both of them, shrieking with joy.

“We haven't seen you all week! You have to tell us what the two of you have been up to. I made this tofu and mung curry that Aang gave me a recipe for last time he was here! You have to try it!”

Sokka was glad that she had raced back inside and down the hall because he must not have looked thrilled because Zuko elbowed him and gave a disapproving look. He didn’t want Sokka to hurt Ty Lee’s feelings and risk having their weekly dinners canceled.

Not when they had become his favorite part of the week.

“Don’t worry, she also made moo sow buns as well, Sokka”, Mai chuckled, before leading the boys inside to the kitchen.

Once there they were greeted with the aroma of warmth and happiness that was the trademark of Ty Lee’s cooking.

It was a rule of dinner night not to sit at the table. You ate whatever the couple hosting had made right there in the kitchen. It felt warm and homey and domestic in all the ways Zuko hadn’t known eating a meal could be until he had found himself eating meals like that with his uncle in Ba Sing Se.

During his childhood mealtime had always been a formal affair and he had grown used to the tension that could be found around a dinner table of people who had expectations of him and what he should be.

He had made an effort to not let his own dinner table become like that. He never wanted to sit down for a meal with friends and have there be tension. He didn’t want to feel like there were valleys and canyons separating him from the people he had grown to love and care for.

This was his family now.

Aang and Katara’s kids called him Uncle Zuko even.

He would never forget the first time that Bumi had called him that. It had startled Zuko, and when prompted as to why he had called him that, Bumi had responded with, “You are family. You’re daddy’s brother. Just like how Uncle Sock is Mama’s brother.”

It was like his whole world had shifted on a pedestal that he hadn’t known he was trying to balance it on and when he’d gotten up off the ground after that fall, his eyes had been opened. And when he had looked around him, he was surrounded by smiling faces that didn’t have hidden intentions and arms that closed around him, not to hurt but to hug.

If he had to leave the room and cry, Sokka wasn’t going to tell anyone about it.

Zuko smiled as he ate.

The food was good, but the company was even better.

During the course of the meal, Sokka had brought up Zuko’s advisors demanding that he produce an heir for the throne, and Ty Lee had sighed, losing that joyful look her face always seemed to carry.

“I wish Mai and I could have a baby… But it isn’t like I can get her pregnant.”

Zuko felt his heartache for his friend, as he answered, “I’m sorry, we shouldn’t have brought this up. I feel terrible that I am acting so upset over being forced to have a kid when the two of you want and can’t have one.”

Sokka suddenly stood up straight with a big smile on his face and said, “And who says they can’t have a kid? I mean we both want to be dads, even if I know you are nervous about the whole thing, and Ty Lee just said she and Mai want to be moms.”

“Yeah, and?”, Zuko answered confused but more than sure Sokka was about to explain whatever madness he had suddenly concocted.

“Simple! What if Mai and Ty Lee got to be the moms and we got to be the dads! We know that your advisors would be more than fine with Mai or Ty Lee being the mother of your child, and you haven't liked any of the women those old guys have tried to force on you so far.”

The kitchen went quiet for a moment as what Sokka had just said sunk in, and then Ty Lee was squealing, “I love it! Mai! We could actually have a kid! What do you think?”

Mai took one look at her wife’s smiling face and nodded before she said, “I’m up for it if Zuko is.”

Now it was all down to Zuko.

Zuko who was currently trying to process what in Agni’s name was going on.

He would actually be able to have a kid with a woman who wasn’t doing it because she thought she would be able to use it as a way to climb the ladder of politics? And he would be able to make his friends happy? He would be able to become a dad and give his friends the child that they wanted?

Ty Lee and Mai would make amazing moms, and his kid would be able to reap the benefits of that? His kid would have two loving moms and Sokka? Even he couldn’t screw up a kid that bad if they had three other great parents to offset any of the mistakes he was bound to make.

When he finally found his voice, he set his plate down and said, still somewhat in shock, “I’m in.”

His advisors had been overjoyed to hear that he had chosen Mai to mother his child. They said that they couldn’t imagine a better choice.

Zuko frankly didn’t give a snow rat’s ass if the decision made them happy. It had made him, Sokka, and his friends happy. That was what mattered.

He was still terrified that he would make a horrible father.

Azula laughed at him when he’d told her that.

“You don’t have a single cruel bone in your body Zuzu. You being a bad father is just about as likely as me being the Avatar.”

Zuko had found that oddly comforting, but he still worried because what if it did turn out he could be cruel? He had hired an assassin to murder a twelve-year-old once. He had betrayed Uncle even after the man had been the only one who supported him for years.

What if he did those same things with his child?

When he looked in the mirror, he wondered if he might one day burn his own child the same way Ozai had burned him. He found himself staring at his reflection a lot more lately.

Mai was pregnant now and he was terrified to go anywhere near her.

It all came to a head when he’d tried to skip dinner night.

Sokka had stormed into Zuko’s office and was furious, but that look had dropped from his face the moment he read the stress and terror in Zuko’s frame.

“Zuko?” His husband asked as he dropped to his knees next to the Fire Lord’s chair, and took the quill from his hand. “Honey, what’s wrong?”

“How can we be sure that I won’t turn out just like my dad? Sokka… This is a child’s life we are gambling with. What if I turn out just like-” Zuko started, but Sokka stopped him.

“Would Ozai have asked that question? Would Ozai have worried about gambling with your life?”

Zuko shook his head.

“Would Ozai have spent the last five months stressing and worrying about his unborn child’s safety? Would he have written up contingency plans to protect that child from himself?”

“You found out about that?” Zuko flushed in horror.

Sokka rolled his eyes and sighed sarcastically, “Dude, you gave them to the guards and they turned them over to me. Of course, I found out. Would Ozai have ever made those plans?”

“No.”

Sokka took Zuko’s hands in his own and said firmly, “Exactly. Zuko, Ozai would never have worried over the safety of his child, like you have. Zuko, even without all of that, I know that you are a good person. You are nothing like your father, but if you don’t believe me, then I can go and get your uncle for you. Let him know you’re spiraling again.”

“No, I don’t want to bother him with this, and you’re right.”

“And what am I right about? I think you need to hear yourself say it.”

Zuko felt tired but like a heavy weight had been lifted off from him, as he answered, “I am nothing like my father. Ozai was someone I needed to be protected from as a child, and I have been worrying about how I’m going to protect our child.”

“Exactly,” Sokka smiled. “Now we are about to be late to dinner, and I don’t think we want to keep Mai and Ty Lee waiting any longer than they already have.”

“Hey, Sokka?”

“Yeah?”

“You’re going to be a great dad as well.”

Zuko had to keep reminding himself that he wasn’t like his father and repeating the evidence to himself because Sokka had been right. He had spiraled and Zuko had convinced himself that he would be like his father when that hadn’t been true.

Now with that worry out of the way, Zuko began on his plans to keep his child safe and happy

He started asking everyone for their advice on what made a good parent. He asked his uncle, his servants, complete strangers. He wrote to everyone he could think of. He would have asked his mom if she was still around.

He missed her, even after all of these years. He wished she could have met her grandchild, but she would never. He hoped the family he had now would be more than enough to make up for her absence.

And no one would dare lay a hand on his child, when Katara, Toph, and Azula were that child’s aunts. And the whole of the Kyoshi Warriors had already gone through the effort of baby proofing the palace, before Zuko had even thought of it.

He had been meeting with his advisors when Sokka burst into the room shouting that Mai had gone into labor.

Zuko had leaped to his feet and followed Sokka out of the room before any of those stuffy old men could disapprove.

He was excited and terrified and overjoyed all at once.

Zuko and Sokka stood with Ty Lee, nervous and waiting, as the midwife worked.

The birth had gone without any complications, and Zuko was handed his daughter.

Looking down into her small pudgy face left him reeling, and threw his world from it’s pedestal once more. Izumi was so small, and she looked up at him, smiling and giggling.

He felt like he might cry and then one of her tiny hands reached up to his face to touch the rough leathery skin of his scar.

He did cry at that, and Ty Lee had to take his daughter from him, and Sokka held him.

Zuko had never seen anything more beautiful in his life and he was more terrified than he had ever been in his life.

“Babe? Are you okay?”, Sokka asked as he whipped away the tears streaming from his good eye and kissed Zuko’s forehead.

“She’s perfect. Sokka, she’s perfect. Our daughter is perfect.”

“Babe, don’t spiral. She’s here now and all four of us are going to be the best parents ever.”

“What if I fail her?”

Mai spoke up now, “You won’t fail, Zuko. You are too stubborn to fail her.”

“Mai’s right. I mean your grandfather and great grandfather both searched high and low for Aang for a hundred years, but it was you who found him. And I don’t know anyone else who can claim that.” Sokka added. “Plus, I know you and you will do anything to keep the people you love safe and happy. Once you put your mind to something, you see it through to the end. You’re putting your mind to not failing her after all, aren’t you?”

“Of course, I am.”

“Then you won’t fail her. None of us will.”

Zuko couldn’t be sure that he wouldn’t fail, but he would sooner die than see Izumi hurt.

Failure wasn’t an option.


End file.
